


A Touch of Rue

by Tsuukai



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Career, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-12 07:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2101692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuukai/pseuds/Tsuukai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the incident with Kise, things were far too awkward to deal with.</p>
<p>Continues from Somebody’s Dirty Secret, <strike>but you don’t really need to read it.</strike></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Touch of Rue

**Author's Note:**

> A possible out-take following the events of "Somebody's Dirty Secret".

 

When Taiga sees the blue back from twenty feet away, he rears to a halt, stunned, and started to glance around for an escape route. It would be just his luck, of all days, to be seen by the idiot. With that thought in mind, he bends his knees, pulls up the hood of his jacket and hunches his shoulders; he did not have anything to cover his face, but movies made it seem easy, so he went with it. Two feet away, and the blue back turns, looking over his head as the man continues to direct the busy Shibuya crossing without really paying attention to Taiga.

Relieved, he lets out a sigh.

“Taiga?”

Taiga’s muscles contracted and forced him to a stop. Stiffly turning himself while screaming obscenities in his head, he lets forth a pained grin. The answering smile makes it a little easier if not a little guilty. “Hey.”

Daiki’s eyebrows did the thing that even though he was happy to see Taiga, he was a little confused—if not hurt—that the other had not greeted him when he saw him. Guilt weighing even more in his chest, Taiga retracts back to where the officer is standing.

“Sorry, must have been preoccupied,” he says in a way of an apology. Daiki does not answer instantly, like he usual is prone to, but looks at Taiga. A hand reaches up and brushes the hood off his head, a small smile still tugging his lips.

“Hnn,” Daiki sounded. “Well, I’m busy and all now,” he said, looking around the street that was surprisingly letting them have this conversation, “So maybe I’ll…get to see you later?”

Taiga heard the hesitance for what it was worth. Almost wincing out loud, he tilted his head to the side, hands in his pockets, “Sure, I’ll try and drop by, okay?” Daiki nodded, take one long good look at Taiga, before he turned away first. Taking the hint, Taiga resumed his walk.

 

* * *

 

Four hours later and Taiga is waiting outside the _kōban_ nervously, hands clutching the straps of his bag that he had especially gone home to get. He did not really need to wait; dropping of its contents was what he sometimes did, but after the afternoon episode, Taiga felt more of a jerk than he has ever felt in his life. He wonders if liking jerks was finally rubbing off him—especially single-minded blonds who had nothing on their head but blue haired jerks—so he wasted some of his free time by waiting. He knew Daiki had his shifts changed this month, and had looked upon it as a godsend after the previous time, but even then the other man managed to encroach into his life despite the last mishap they had. The only saving grace was Kise’s hectic schedule that refused to let up (or maybe the fact that his supervisor hated how he was so popular with the ladies, filled his flights with mostly stewards or older women).

As Taiga waited, the sun made its final descent, the hues of its setting streaming across the clouded skies, large horizontal patches of intense red, and yellow, and topped with a soothing blue, Daiki’s voice cut in: “How long are you going to stay there?”

Startled, Taiga sputtered. “W-when did you get back?”

Daiki sighed, resting left his hand on his hip, the right absent-mindedly thumbing the pocket seam of his uniform. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Frowning, Taiga lifted the atrociously cute bag he had been clutching to his chest, forgetting for a moment exactly what he had grabbed to carry his parcel along.

Daiki burst out into a chuckle first. Holding a loose fist partially before his face, laughing into it, slightly bent at the waist where his other arm curled, Taiga felt a warm heat spread in his chest; Daiki looked adorable for a large man in uniform. “What the hell is that?”

Taiga scowled, blushing, as he snapped, “Don’t you dare talk! This is what you gave me!”

“As a prank!” He was still laughing. “I didn’t think you would even walk out of the house with it!” he reached out a hand to touch the surface of the bag, amusement clear in his face, but his eyes…they looked forlorn. Taiga was a little uncomfortable recognising it for what it was so he concentrated it on the bag. The bag that was a beige starch with a large red heart in front, sporting a smiley-faced hamburger, while the back of the bag was decorated in repeating patterns of potato fries and burgers; it looked too girlish on him, and he did not know what possessed Daiki to ever gift it to him, the idiot.

“Well, at least it came to good use,” he said, passing the bag to Daiki. Taking it with a shaking hand (the bastard was still giggling) dark blue eyes peered into it. The ends of his eyebrows did that weird twitch and the frown lines cleared up in surprise.

“You…got me food?” He sounded surprised, so Taiga scoffed, folding his arms and looking aside.

“What? It isn’t something I haven’t been doing for ages, you know.”

Daiki shook his head, pulling out the ō-bento wrapped in its dark blue with red floral and lined patterns bordered _furushiki_ before he glanced up to look at Taiga. Almost unable to bear the stare at his side profile, Taiga snapped a quick, “Stop staring!” before Daiki looked at the ō-bento.

“Is this…a peace offering?” Taiga wondered why the idiot was still a box police when he could easily just go on higher up and make a bomb with interrogation. Or so it felt to him, standing in the darkening busy streets of Shibuya being questioned for his flighty attitude.

“N-not really,” he mumbled. “I just…You haven’t really been badgering me for food lately, so I… thought you were mad at me.”

They both remained quiet in their own thoughts of each other. To outsiders, it would have looked comical, like the police officer was questioning this scary ruffian about the cute bag he was trotting and if he had stolen it from someone else. _Cradle robber_ would have been a good fit, Daiki thought wryly.

“…I’m not mad at you.” Taiga looked his way, wary. “I thought…you didn’t want to see my face after I told Kise you liked him.”

Mouth scrunching at the thought, Taiga did not know how to tell Daiki that Kise had taken the confession as a winning point, ending with, “Sorry, Kagamicchi. I don’t think I’ll be any good for you. All I think about is Aominecchi after all.” At that point, Taiga had sourly wanted to add Kuroko as well, but besides getting a bawling blond on his shoulder, he knows later he would have to deal with bruised ribs courtesy of one poker-faced phantom.

Daiki, thinking Taiga was really mad, frowned as he looked down, clutching the bag in one hand and the ō-bento in the other, wondering why his mouth had to go and let lose all his stupid fears to the person itself.

“You’re an idiot,” Taiga finally spoke, sighing. “Seriously, a big idiot. But,” he looked Daiki straight in the eye, “I was at fault to. My bad.”

The clenching in Daiki’s stomach stopped, slowly easing out and allowing the stress build up in his chest to dissipate. Breathing enabled, Daiki grinned a nice and smooth stretch on his lips which Taiga returned gratefully.

“C’mon now! Time to eat!” Daiki dangled both items in his hands, laughing a touch too maniacally, and Taiga followed, chuckling at the fool, and wondered what his days would be like if this large blue person was not around to fill it. Probably less worried and no more embarrassing moments to chalk, but then again, Taiga could have pushed him away a long time ago.

Enabling him probably was a guilty pleasure, even if he did not realise it himself yet.

 

* * *

 

**_A repeat of the_ ** **~~Useless~~ Author’s ~~Useless~~ Explanations:**

_Kōban_ is those police boxes you see in some anime and manga. Residential areas have maybe one or two boxes, smaller areas requiring only one officer stationed, or two if the neighbourhood is moderately inflicted by petty crime. Places like where Aomine is stationed (Shinjuku, Shibuya) the boxes have 3-5 officers and they are allowed to carry firearms. :D

_Furushiki_ is something you usually see only in relation to wrapping up o-bentō, but actually, it is generally used to wrap and carry most items.

 

The cute bag that Kagami is clutching for dear life? That actually exists! [And I own one](http://tsuu-kai.tumblr.com/post/94059418285/a-touch-of-rue-for-aokaga-month). :D

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews and comments are greatly appreciated, as always, no matter the content! :D


End file.
